Fans of Star Wars were treated earlier this week to a marathon 17-hour screening of all six films in celebration of the franchise's 30th birthday.
Several thousand diehards packed the Los Angeles Convention Centre on Wednesday to kick off "Star Wars Celebration IV", which runs until Monday. Attractions for the paying public …

Open the blast doors

"an unregistered replica of a fictional weapon that does not yet exist" - to be fair, most of the ray guns in Star Wars were based on real-life weapons, presumably because Pinewood had lots of James Bond props lying about. The Stormtrooper blasters were cut-down blank-firing Sterling SMGs, and Han Solo's Greedo-killer was a Mauser C96 with accessories. Also, the AT-ATs were miniature schnauzer dogs with metal suits (this is a lie).

It's not explicitly clear from the story that the fan was dressed as Darth Vader - surely Darth would not have been carrying such a clumsy, random weapon as a blaster. Unless a friend had asked him to look after it, but then again Darth Vader had no friends

Reply to Nicholas Moore...

unregistered blaster?

if that blaster were functional, the guy would have vanished quite some time ago.

all the world's intelligence agencies would compete to bury the owner of next-gen destructive technology (without necessarily killing him first, they're not that picky), and grab the goods.

dealing with police would be the least of his problems.

this is an absurd, ignorant overreaction by law enforcement. as a US resident (many such silly twits here too), i am very impressed (unfavorably). as a Soviet expatriate, i am, again, very impressed (again, unfavorably).

is it possible to live in the English-speaking West and not recognize the iconic figure of Darth Vader ("please return forthwith to underside of rock you have recently vacated...")? is it reasonable to believe that a Star Wars blaster is a functional energy weapon, or a firearm, while still retaining sanity and sense? i have read that recent studies indicate a significantly higher statistical incidence of dementia and psychotic episodes among professional law enforcement, but this is a bit much.

when they do this sort of thing, they "protect and serve" whom, exactly?

Good thing it was in OZ , not the UK populated with kill happy police officers!

Actually it was a good thing it happened in Victoria , OZ Downunder as the local cops would say it's easier to use the gun any time , however the paperwork regarding where the fired bullets went is a real killer!

However , in the UK , given the gung ho "fill em all full of lead" that is all pervasive , with all the local armed police squads , who are notoriously known for the unknown irregular "shoot to kill" without a warning on the first shot , then empty several pistols worth of bullets into the innocent victim at the same time , so the questions become somewhat redundant , the poor bugger would have been shot to death before he could have crossed "Trafalgar Square" in the UK!

Further these Armed UK Police Squads , have racked up an impressive score of innocent victims!

Strange times and even more stranger are the so called popular democratically elected government leaders , who routinely tell lies to both their own populace and the UN !

Now , in what country where were those so called "weapons of mass deception" hidden again? , perhaps our man Colin ( a former army major since promoted , who has more than a few well hidden Vietnam coverup skeletons in one closet) could be able to tell us?

But what if....

The fictional blaster was a real fire-arm disguised as a fictional blaster?

Before I get my coat, the law classes anything as a fire-arm if it is used in a way as to cause distress and alarm in the way a real fire-arm would. (Masked Man + Possible Fire-arm + Arrest) = Good Policing.